captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: in syria, a top government official and four high ranking military officers switched sides, joining rebel forces today as the u.n.'s humanitarian envoy reported on her visit to the besieged city of homs. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the "newshour" tonight, we assess the realities on the ground hampering militaryç assistance to the rebels and humanitarian aid to civilians. >> woodruff: then, we discuss the presidential campaign and women voters. whom do they pport and why? >> suarez: margaret warner looks at the clamor on social media after a video about a notorious

african warlord goes viral with upwards of 40 million views. >> woodruff: and from libya, "global post" correspondent tracey shelton reports on the ordinary men who took up arms against the qaddafi regime and now struggle to return to normalcy. >> i don't like to fight anymore. i hate the blood, i hate to kill somebody. i was struggling when i would fight and now struggling to get back a normal life. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and...

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. we began by demands for all of iran to show it nuclear work. kwame holman has that and the other stories of the day. >> holeman: six powers urged iran to let the u.n. into all its nuclear sites. in a joint statement, they also threatened diplomacy was the key to resolving tensions. and in tehran, the iranian supreme leader i tollly hamanahi had halting praise for president >> ( translated ): a couple of days ago we heard the american president saying that the u.s. is not thinking about war with iran.

okay, that's a good thing to say, it's a wise statement. this means they have stopped having delusions. but he has also has said we will bring the iranian people to their knees through sanctions. this is delusion. >> holman: in another development, israeli news reports said israel has asked the u.s. for bunker buster bombs and refueling planes. they could be used to attack iran's underground nuclear sites. a white house spokesman said israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu did not raise that issue with president obama last week. a large number of private investors agreed today to help greece slash $140 billion from its debt. a greek official said more than 75% of bond holders would swap their existing greek government bonds for new ones, worth much less. the move is critical to greece's efforts to avoid default. in u.s. economic news, theç number of first-time claims for jobless benefits rose slightly last week. but the four week average remained near a four year low. and wall street had an upbeat

day. the dow jones industrial average gained 70 points to close near 12,908. the nasdaq rose more than 34 points to close at 2,970. the senate began a series of votes today on a bill to fund roads and transit programs. the two-year measure would cost $109 billion. supporters said it would create hundreds of thousands of jobs. on the house side, majority republicans have not agreed on what to include in a highway bill, or how to pay for it. oése democratic leader nancy pelosi said today, that's not good enough. >> so far as we can see, our republican colleagues have been in disarray on the subject of what, how and when a transportation bill will come to the floor. it's very important that we move forward with this big job creator. >> holman: house speaker john boehner had hoped to bring up a five-year bill, worth $260 billion. he scrapped that idea today.

>> the current plan is to see what the senate can produce and to bring their bill up. and in the meantime, we're going to continue to have conversations with members about a longer-term approach which, frankly, most of our members want. >> holman: current transportation funding expires on march 31. the senate is expected to vote on a final version of its bill early next week. the state supreme court of mississippi has upheld pardons issued by republican governor haley barbour, in his final days in office. barbour touched off a storm of criticism in january, when he pardoned four convicted killers. they had worked at the governor's mansion as prison trustees. the court ruled today that the governor acted properly. it also said it had no authority to overturn the pardons anyway. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy.

>> suarez: the syrian government kept up the pressure on its opponents today even as it suffered new, high-level defections. at the same time, debate grew over how to help syrian rebels and civilians caught in the fighting. syrian government tanks were still all over the battle- scarred streets of homs today seen in video recorded surreptitiously on a cell phone. the baba amr section of the city had been blasted into ruins in a month-long bombardment by the military. in damascus today, the u.n. humanitarian chief, valerie amos, told of seeing the shattered neighborhood, during a visit yesterday. >> the devastation there is significant. that part of homs is completely destroyed and i am concerned to know what has happened to the people who lived in that part of the city. >> reporter: meanwhile, tanks and soldiers patrolled in the southern city of daraa in a bid to repress the uprising that began there more than a year ago. but president assad's regime was

dealt a new blow, with four more military officers defecting, plus the deputy oil minister. he was identified as the man in this online video, urging the end of an oppressive regime. >> ( translated ): this is why i have chosen to join the voice of righteousness, knowing that this regime will burn my home, persecute my family and come up with a lot of lies. i advise my colleagues who have been silent in the face of crimes for a year to abandon this sinking ship which is about to drown. >> suarez: and the chorus of syrian voices calling for action grew louder still with this march in al hasaka organized by women, on international women's day.ç in egypt, though, former u.n. secretary general kofi annan-- now special envoy to syria-- said outside military intervention is not the answer. >> i hope that right now no one is thinking very seriously of

using force in this situation. i believe any further militarization will make the situation worse. we have to be careful that we don't introduce a medicine that is worse than the disease. >> suarez: in fact, u.s. senator john mccain caldee this week for air strikes. the arizona republican spoke yesterday at a hearing of the senate armed services committee. >> time is running out. assad's forces are on the march. providing military assistance to the free syrian army and other opposition groups is necessary but at this late hour that alone will not be enough to stop the slaughter and save innocent lives. the only realistic way to do so is with foreign air power. >> suarez: at that same hearing, defense secretary leon panetta said he was against unilateral action for now. >> as secretary of defense before i recommend that we put

our sons and daughters in uniform in harms way i've got to make very sure we know what mission is. i've got to make very sure that we know whether we can achieve that mission, at what price and whether or not it will make matters better or worse. >> suarez: and at his news conference on tuesday, president obama made clear he is not ready to go that far. >> for us to take military action unilaterally as some have suggested or to think that somehow there is some simple solution i think is a mistake. >> we're asking for the u.n. to help us and bomb goes off. >> suarez: in the meantime, with the world debating the way forward in syria, people there are using testimonial web videos to get their stories out. one of the best known danny abdul dayem has documented the

daily horrors of life in homs, for months. and danny abdul dayem joins us now. he slipped out of homs and is currently travelling in the u.s., raising awareness about the situation in syria. he joins us from houston, texas, where he's meeting with a group of syrian americans later tonight and robert malley, he worked in the national security council in the clinton administration and is now program director for the middle east and north africa at the international crisis group. danny abdul dayem, let me start with you. you've been in syria quite recently. the army moved on homs, especially neighborhood of be be am am which you're very familiar with. what's the latest you're hearing from your hometown? >> the latest i'm hearing is the free syrian army left baba amr because they're bombarding the whole area randomly. so the syrian army, the assad

regime's army has entered in baba amr and they're executing any guy they find. they've already executed more than 30 guys there. they've taken over all the kids, anyone over 14 years old has been imprisoned and tortured. they're stealing all the houses, stealing all the shops and tearing down everything they find in that area. >> suarez: well, there's a hot debate in the united states and the rest of the world about what happens next. what would you like to see andç what would the people of homs like to see what happens next? what kind of aid from the rest of the world? >> well, what we would like to see is an intervention, an army intervention, a strike on assad's regime and a no-fly zone. we don't need aid and humanitarian. people are being killed there. we need support for the free syrian army. this is what we've been asking for for a long time. but what i am 100% sure is no one's going to do anything about this and the assad regime will hit us harder and harder with

its air force. what we are asking forç is eitr say you're going to help us or you're not. stop leaving us in the middle dying like this. that's not what our path is. that is not what's going to happen to us. >> suarez: robert malley, you're watching the same situation danny is. is what he's suggesting going to work? >> he's watching it much closer than i have and obviously what we're hearing is very moving. i think he put the question very well. is there going to be real intervention? the kind of intervention senator mccain spoke about because the hatch measures, armying the opposition having a safe havens those are not going to change anything. so the real question is are we in the position where we could intervene massively? taking out the air defenses to create after no-fly zone? according to military experts that's weeks and weeks and weeks of constant sorties. with all that you can imagine

with civilian casualties because one of the most robust air defenses in the region are intermingled with civilians and what it would mean in terms of how certain it might react with the neighbors it has in jordan and lebanon iraq and turkey. that's why the president said what he said. this is an extraordinarily difficult enterprise. >> suarez: so it sounds like you're saying it would be very hard, very costly in human life so what's the al ternive? >> there's one alternative now. we have to come to something much more drastic. right now there's an alternative which is the diplomatic attempt that secretary general kofi annan is embarked on. every reason to be kept cal. let's give it a chance and see if he can bring the russians on board to send a very different message to the syrians than the russians have sent so far. >> pelley: danny, what do you any can diplomacy work at this stage in the game? >> diplomacy with the assad regime will not work. it will only leave by force. we all know this.

it will not leave by peaceful talks or any politician talks. he will run away by... we need an attack on syria. we need to save human lives and stop talking about this. people are diagnose, thousands of people and children and women are diagnose everyday. hubs. women are being raped. kids are being killed and we're just sitting down here talking about politics. while i'm talking to you right now i'm 100% sure people are being killed by the army. women are being raped by the army and security forces. we need help. any kind of help. >> suarez: but you just heard robert malley in washington suggest that the kind of intervention you're suggesting would take weeks on its own with significant loss of civilian life. are the people of syria ready for that kind of risk? i realize they're dying on the ground now, but this could break things open in a way that is much larger. >> i am 100% sure and i know the

free syrian army, i met all the guys, highç lieutenants. we have no-fly zone in syria, more than 70% of the army would defect with their tanks and their heavy artillery. they can't defect now because the assad force will bombard them with air strikes. >> suarez: robert malley, what's the difference between this situation and the one we saw in libya where a well equipped military force was able to strike against a substantial army? >> the world of difference. to begin with... and i understand what's being said anç i'm sure there are many in syria who are praying for this to happen from outside intervention. but the kind of air defense that syria has is nothing compared to what libya had. and it does mean weeks and weeks of bombardment and that's why leon panetta and the president are saying if we're going to go there, let's measure what it mean, it's not politics. this is not simply politics, this is real life that would be at stake. this is whole regional balance that would be at stake. these repercussions that was never the case in libya.

libya you had an area that was already controlled by the opposition. you didn't have a strong army, you didn't have a strong air defense, you didn't have outside allies, libya was completely isolated and didn't have the capacity to do the kind of mischief this regime is doing right now in dreadful ways to its own people but also it could do outside. this is a much much more central issue which is why people are debating it as passionate as they are. >> suarez: danny abdul die dayem, do you risk setting a fire into the entire neighborhood, bringing iran-- one of syria's last friends-- into the fighting. having instability that spills over into the neighboring countries. >> you just said iran is one of the regime's last friends, not our friends. iran is helping the regime and the assad family to kill us, also hezbollah from lebanon are coming into homs and they are helping the regime kill us. they are not our friends, they

are the regime's friends. and there's already a war going on right now. there is a war going on. people are saying well, if we do this, this is going to be a war. what's going on right now is they're hitting with us rocket launchers, helicopters, all the buildings have been hit and it's all being randomly. they're not targeting the free syrian army, they're targeting everybody, the civilians, the free syrian army and

liberty issue and it can apply to all faiths. >> but california senator barbara boxer and other democrats countered the g.o.p. was launching a war on women. >> women in this country are tired of being treated like a political football by republicans in congress who have tried continually and are continuing to try to take away their benefit, to take away their rights. >> the president ultimately altered the birth control mandate to accommodate religious objections. but house republicans drew fire from women's groups when they arranged for five men to speak against the mandate, at a hearing, while barring a young female law student, sandra fluke, from testifying in favor. the issue blew up again when conservative radio host rush limbaugh called fluke a slut and prostitute last week. he later apologized, but lost a number of sponsors in the continuing furor. president obama, meanwhile, telephoned fluke to commend her for speaking out.

but at tuesday's news conference, he said women will base their votes on more than any single incident. >> there are millions of strong women around the country who are going to make their own determination about a whole range of issues. it's not going to be narrowly focused just on contraception, it's not going to be driven by one statement by one radio announcer. >> woodruff: still, evidence of fallout appeared in a new poll by the left-leaning group emily's list. it found that on women's health issues, voters in eight senate battleground states now give democrats an 18-point advantage. indeed, in virginia, a firestorm of criticism and protests prompted republicans to back away from requiring internal ultrasound testing for women seeking abortions. and some republicans looked to shift the debate back to friendlier ground. mitt romney's wife, ann, had

this to say on super tuesday night. >> do you know what women care about? women care about jobs. >> woodruff: whatever drives women to the polls in november, democrats hoped the events of recent weeks will ultimately work to their benefit. for a closer look we are joined by "washington post" columnist ruth marcus and republican strategist cheri jacobus, the founder of capitol strategies and columnist for "the hill" newspaper. we thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> warner:. >> woodruff:, so ruth, how important is the the women's vote in a presidential election? >> the women's vote is very important for the simple fact that women tend to be a majority of the electorate. and so women are stronger voters and they are also stronger democratic voters than men so the president needs to have women by his side, strong women

by his side if he's going to be elected. >> cheri, typically what issues are more important to women voters than they are to men or can you say that there's a pattern for women? >> first of all, women are people and they care a lot about the same thing men do. they care about jobs, they care about the economy. and anne romney was right. i don't think she was trying to change the subject. if you look at the polling, pew research shows romney was doing better... slightly better among women in january when put up against obama which is pretty significant for republicans to be able to do that. that has since shifted and a lot of that is attributed to the kerfuffle with rush limbaugh and the contraception issue which has been bungled from a p.r. perspective for republicans but that does show women were starting to pivot slowly towards obama before that likely due to the economy. the good news for republicans, for mitt romney's probably g.o.p. nominee is that economic issues, jobs, really do matter and he can compete with obama on that. >> woodruff: before we talk about what's going on in this

campaign ruth, there has been, since what, the reagan era, the 1980s, kind of a structural... what we call gender gap between men and women. what has that been about? >> well, it's been about women are further... women are people too and women care about the same issues that men care about. but they may weight them differently. for example women are a little bit more reluctant... women as a general matter, i'm not doing stereo types, just talking about polls. they're a little more reluctant to go to war so they're less supportive of ronald reagan. they're a little more believers in activist government, more supportive of health care type issues. so as i said, there is a structural gender gap and democrats when they succeed can exploit that and build on it. and i have to say i know that cheri's trying to sort of make lemonade from lemon here, but, boy, i sometimes think watching

this debate right now that the obama campaign has some kind of sleeper agent in the republican party that is creating this kerfuffle because it can't be good for republicans. >> woodruff: you mean the controversy over contraception, birth control. >> calling sandra fluke a slut and prostitute. mitt romney, i thought, made a huge mistake and i was glad to see my conservative colleague george will calling him on it in being very, very timid in what he said. he said "i wouldn't have used those words." well, what words would you use? >> woodruff: how did this happen this year in this campaign? it started out as the obama administration issuing new regulations about birth control. how did... this is not where republicans would like it to be. >> it's not where the republicans would like it to be because that's the whole p.r. war has been... they lost at least the first part of the battle. i don't think republicans are going to lose on the substance if they can get back on track. when you're talking about

religious liberty. look a lot of republican women who maybe lean pro-choice or some of us have sympathys in both camps, we're not activists for either side and we understand somebody wanting the choice to do what they want with their body but when you start saying well, we're going to force this on religious institutions to go against something that's important to them or we're going to force somebody else to pay for it you start losing a lot of people you might consider to be pro-choice that are kind of silent right now so it's not a black-and-white issue. it's a little risky for democrats to want to run on this. but, again, obama's numbers, particularly among white women, were so poor and he can't win without them. a huge gender gap and in the 2008 election, but that's why they started this campaign republican war on women to close that gap. so a lot of this is hyperbole invented by the democrats. is. >> woodruff: republicans say this is all about religious liberty as we just heard cheri referring. democrats say wait a minute, it's about contraception. how are voters dealing with that? >> well it was about religious

liberty and i thought the administration made a mistake in not drawing its exemption largely... broadly enough at the start but partly the administration has just stumbled into this terrific situation now in terms of politics where it's not just a question of religious liberty. you have mitt romney who says he opposes federal funding for federal family planning programs, a program started by george h.w. bush. you have clinics closing in texas, family planning clinics and clinics that offer women's health services because, god forbid, pardon the pun, they should take money that might trickle somewhere in some theoretical way into providing abortion services. >> so it's not just in washington? >> it's not just in washington. enough debate, for example, about the sonogram bill in virginia where even the conservative governor of virginia backed off of having

the more invasive form of the sonogram required before a woman could have an abortion. and i just think the republicans do not want to be having this debate but they keep allowing the democrats to keep it going at this point. >> woodruff: are moderate women in the republican party weighing in with the party leadership and saying this is what we think the party should be. >> i think moderate women and all women in the party understand what's going on. a lot of this sudden blip in the women support for obama that he did not have before is because of the hyperbole and people kind of misrepresenting the issue overall. i'm confident that that will die down. i think it's sort of settled where it's supposed to be and you'll find anne romney was right about what women really care about. if there's a woman who's getting free birth control or free abortion services somewhat and i don't think they're going to say well, that's a republican voter and now she's going to change and be a democrat because suddenly now people are upset about the co-mingling of the

funds with troord what the taxpayers are funding. >> is there any way this can be that this whole question of birth control contraception can be discussed that is not a detriment to republicans? >> absolutely. >> woodruff: can republicans talk about in the a way that doesn't turn off many women? >> i think they can. it was a mistake to have... just on the first panel, not the entire hearing, but the first panel talking about contraception. they've blown it on the p.r. front. but that doesn't mean they're wrong on the substance so that's where as a republican that's where i see a silver lining on the p.r. front. there's clear evidence that republicans will... women will support republicans,. >> woodruff: meantime, what do democrats say about this? as you go into this election, we're just in march. >> democrats want this to keep going and let me give you numbers that explain why in 2008 president obama beat john mccain

by seven points overall, by 13 points among women. right now he's up six points in one of the latest polls against governor romney but by 18 points against women and romney is not surprisingly given some of the other candidates doing the best with women. >> pelley: you mean among republicans >> >> among republicans. and one of the particular things democrats want to do is distinguish among women voters. they do best in theory among single women. but single women who are very traditional democratic voters do not vote in proportion to their numbers. if this discussion can energize those women to get out and vote democrats will have a good... >> i don't think it's likely women will vote on this issue because they think... the issue is being misrepresented. the issue is not that republicans want to eliminate contraception. a lot of people think that's exactly what they want to do is eliminate access and that's not the case. >> woodruff: it's just march.

many months to go. we thank you very much. the thank you. >> suarez: a video about an african warlord goes viral around the world. margaret warner has that story. >> warner: the 30-minute video was posted on youtube monday and quickly went viral. the work of the non-profit group invisible children, it purports to document atrocities committed by militant joseph kony and his lord's resistance army in uganda and central africa, beginning in the 1980s. >> for 26 years, kony has been kidnapping children into his rebel group the l.r.a., turning the girls into sex slaves and the boys into child soldiers. he makes them mutilate people's faces and he forces them to kill

their own parents. and this is not just a few children, it's been over 30,000 of them. >> warner: more than 38 million people had viewed the video on various web sites. it features invisible children co-founder jason russell explaining kony's actions to his son, gavin. >> he has an army and what he does is take children from his parents and gives them a gun to shoot and what he does is make them shoot and kill other

people. >> but they're not going to do what he says because they're nice guys right? >> yeah, they don't want do what he says but he forces them to do bad things. what do you think about that? >> sad. >> warner: the campaign against kony is not new. in 2005, he was indicted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity, and using children as soldiers. last october, president obama sent 100 u.s. special forces to africa to aid in kony's capture. but invisible children says that it wants kony and his crimes to be so well known, that global pressure will force the u.s. and other nations to do much more. >> we are targeting 20 cultural makers and 20 policymakers to use their power for good. let's start with the culture makers-- celebrities and

billionairs have a loud voice and what they talk about spreads instantly. then we're going after policymakers. the ones that have the authority to see kony captured. >> warner: the video urges viewers to contact these 40 prominent people-- from movie stars to lawmakers through twitter, telephone, and other means-- and pressure them to speak out, or act. but the campaign has generated an online outburst of criticism of invisible children, its fundraising methods, and its message. for example, a blogger in britain's "independent" newspaper argued the group should also be concerned about government abuses in uganda. he wrote: "when a bad guy like kony is running riot for years on end, raping and slashing and seizing and shooting, then there is most likely another host of bad guys out there letting him get on with it." in response, invisible children said on its web site it does not condone human rights abuses by anyone.

for more about the global phenomenon of this video and the larger story in uganda, we turn to emira woods. she tracks africa developments at the institute for policy studies. and dawn arteaga, a digital strategist for the public relations firm, porter novelli in washington d.c. welcome to you both. dawn arteaga, beginning with you how big a deal, how remark able phenomenon is this video in the world of social media? >> i have to say, as far as we can tell, this is unprecedented. there's a great metrix team in new york that we've been tracking very closely. we can't find a comparison video that has gone so big so quickly. >> tell thus path this took. it did go on another web site, vim owe, late last week, i think but starting with youtube just on monday. how has it moved around? >> it's been on youtube, as you said, about three days and as we saw in the video reached about 40 million views.

it's been spread by celebrities, facebook, twitter, they've used every tool in the social media tool kit to get this out. again it's unprecedented the growth. >> when you go on youtube you can see the ages it most appeals to and girls 13 to 17 and 18 to 24 for boy. what's it about this video that appeals to teenagers? >> well it's simple in nature. what it's asking for for people to spread the word which is something very suited to social media and it's giving name huge reward for doing that. by making kony famous, as they say they can stop children from being killed. so the reward is huge and very well suited to social media. >> we're going get back to whether that reward can be fulfilled but emira woods, tell us mbt about joseph kony.

how did the liberation army start? what were its political aims? >> well, the lords resistance army started in northern uganda and as is often the case it is communities where people have been marginalized economically and politically you have to keep in mind joseph kony came into power around the same time as the preside of uganda, he's been around since the 1980s now and it was a quest for political power couched in in, again, lord's resistance army. a lot of language around religion and rights of people but what we have seen is a real deterioration of rights. the abduction of children. this is well documented in the video. what is not shone in the video is the other part of the picture w gahn dan military that has also been tremendously abusive in terms of the rights of his own. >> warner: and how vigorous have the efforts been to capture him. here's someone that was indicted seven years ago by the international criminal court. >> we have to recognize that ultimately invisible children is

calling for a military intervention by the u.s. and others and that was tried before. it was tried before back in 2008 it was called operation lightning thunder reported well in the "new york times" and elsewhere where the u.s. using military forces went in working with the gone dan military. we saw ugandan civilians caught in the cross fire, huge escalation in deaths at that time a military operation that, in fact, failed, was never reviewed, never scrutinized and now a call for essentially young people go all out and support yet another attempt at a military intervention. >> pelley: tell us a little bit about the criticism on line because that's one of the points of criticism. it's asking young people to call for military intervention. what else have people been saying? >> they've been criticizing that. they've been criticizing the transparency of the organization. >> warner: financially. >> right, where the money really is going that people are going to start donating now.

they've been criticizing this issue. is this the right issue for so many people to focus nona world full of other problems? but i think really at the root of this what's interesting is that we're seeing this criticism is leading to more interest in the video and in the organization. >> warner: is this seen by other advocacy groups as some kind of a model? >> it absolutely should be seen as a model. i think we've looked at comparable campaigns. we all remember the old spice commercials from 2010 that were hugely popular on youtube and in the same period of time over the course of the first three days of that campaign launch they only had half the number of views this campaign has. and we're talking about a 30-minute video on youtube, the sweet spot, we usually say, is around two minutes. is. >> warner: so where is this leading? that's the question. where is this going?

i mean... >> well, it could go in many different directions. ultimately the invisible children video is for u.s. military intervention to support the ugandan military in its operation, again, to apprehend joseph kony whether... in uganda or in other bordering countries. i think ultimately what we have to say is that there is an enormous opportunity when almost 40 million people have viewed this video. is it possible to pivot somehow to have even for example attention paid on the international criminal court? after all, the u.s. has not signed nor ratified the international criminal court. it's an opportunity to educate people on those basic principles of international governance, of international norms, rules of the road, however you call it that bring about a better world. >> not to mention all the other problems in africa. >> problems but also opportunity. what we see not only in tunisia and egypt but what we see around the continent is people taking their destiny in their own hands. how can we use the technology,

use the social media in ways that help young people 13 to 24 reach out to support young people delight in africa to have direct contact, direct dialogue and direct engagement. >> warner: dawn, back to you, do you see a scenario for getting from this new awareness... i mean, they've already succeeding in making him way more famous than he was. >> certainly. >> warner: to actually action in the end that will affect the lives of young... of african children which is the ostensible purpose here? >> well, it's certainly possible. we've seen social media be a huge catalyst for change in egypt where it brought down homs. >> warner: but it got people into the street there is. >> it did. and this is very different. when you're talking about 13 to 17-year-old girls in the united states you're not going to possibly have the same result as in egypt. but i think scale this has reached in such a short period of time is promising.

>> warner: we have to leave it there. thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: on our website, find links to the full kony 2012 video, earlier newshour reports on him and the lord's resistance army, plus criticism of the video and the response from invisible children. we'll be back shortly with a report on rebels in a post- qaddafi libya. but first, this is pledge week on pbs. this break allows your public television station to ask for your support. and that support helps keep programs like ours on the air.

moammar qadhaffi. tracey shelton with our partners at the international website "global post" reports from misrata.

>> if you threaten somebody, killing people and others kill your friends and you see blood and their red body and all this month you were far away from your family, even... would you... everyday you're hearinging bombs bombs bombs, i think it will reflect bad things in yourself. i know... i'm sick. (laughs) >> reporter: like thousands of libyan civilians, this man became a soldier overnight. he was a postal worker when the revolution started. >> if i didn't do this, i would have died and qaddafi forces would come into the city and can many people and they have to

defend my city and it was a necessity to this. >> reporter: others were students, fishermen, i.t. professionals, account tanlts, truck drivers and almost none of them had held a weapon before facing moammar qaddafi's national army. mohammed al hoshi was a mechanic. >> ( translated ): before none of us knew anything about weapons but now even the small babies can use them. >> reporter: several fighters stay transition was tough but necessary. this computer programmer and father of four became a prominent fighter when misurata was invaded by qaddafi's troops. >> ( translated ): when the killing started, we made the decision to face the troops. with no guns we faced them with only knives, sticks, and stones. >> reporter: with no weapons,

some men designed homemade guns, others made bombs from whatever explosive materials they could find. although he had no army training, he began designing new weapons from salvaged ammunition toys and broken machinery. sometimes the rebels picked up guns retreating soldiers left behind. >> it was the guns and it was a little bit but not for... because we have no idea about how to fire. we have no idea about anything that was happening at that time. >> reporter: but now they are trying to adjust back to civilian life. this man has been rebuilding his shop that was destroyed in the fighting though he has no equipment or customers yet. but that's not the hardest part. >> ( translated ): it's very difficult from a psychological side, especially when you

remember your friends that passed away. the ones who were injured. lost arms, legs. those who were kidnapped. >> reporter: libya's economy is struggling and high rates of unemployment are one reason many of the regional militias haven't disbanded. they fight regularly with each other and with suspected qaddafi loyalists. this man says he's had enough. >> i hate the blood. i hate to kill somebody. you know, even in the war when i was fighting, sometimes i saw my enemy but i... i can't shoot him i said if he can run, i will let him run.

but some... others they want to carry on and now to get back to normal life for me i'm struggling. i was struggling when i was fighting. i'm now struggling to get back to normal life. >> reporter: that struggle threatens to take even longer than the fight to overthrow moammar qaddafi >> suarez: again, the major developments of the day: a top syrian government official and four high ranking military officers switched sides, as the world debate intensified over how to help rebels and civilians alike. the u.s. and five other world powers urged iran to let u.n. inspectors into its nuclear sites as promised. and a large number of private investors agreed to help greece slash $140 billion from its debt

and avoid default. and to kwame holman for what's on the "newshour" online. kwame? >> holman: for science thursday, hari sreeenivasan spoke with nature photographer joel sartore. he's taking portraits of roughly 6,000 species of captive animals, many of which are endangered. he's about a third of the way through his project. and what would be the impact on small businesses if taxes are raised on the wealthy? paul solman examines that on his making sense page. all that and more is on our web site: newshour.pbs.org. >> suarez: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm ray suarez. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks among others. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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